Question

I was wondering what the syntax is to link to an attribute on the same page

I have a list of dates

   <ul>
     <% @response.each_pair do |date, movie| %>
      <li><%= link_to date_format(date), date, :class => 'scroll_to' %></li>
     <% end %>
   </ul>

These then have movies underneath each date like so

<% @response.each_pair do |date, movie| %>
    <h3 class="resultTitle fontSize13">Available on&nbsp;<%= date_format(date) %></h3>
    <% movie.each do |m| %>
      <div class="thumbnail clearfix">
        <img class="pull-left" src=<% if m.image_link %> <%= m.image_link %> <% else %> "/assets/noimage.jpg" <% end %>>
        <div class="caption pull-right">
          <%= link_to m.name, m.title_id, :class => 'resultTitle fontSize11' %>
          <p class="bio"><%= m.bio %></p>
          <p class="resultTitle">Cast</p>
          <p class="bio"><%= m.cast.join(", ") unless m.cast.empty? %></p>
          <%= link_to "Remind me", reminders_path(:title_id => m.title_id), :method => :post, :class => 'links button' %>
        </div>
      </div>
    <% end %>
  <% end %>

What i would like to achieve is that when a user clicks on a date in the list then it will take them to that date with movies on the same page

My attribute for each date is

"release_date"

Do i need to link to that, maybe a piece of Jquery aswell to scroll down to that date? or would it jump to the date in one step?

Any advice appreciated, I have linked to other pages before but not the same page like this

EDIT

I have tried this but the page just re renders

<li><%= link_to date_format(date), params.merge(:release_date => 'release_date'), :class => 'scroll_to' %></li>

Am i on the right track?

Thanks

Answer 1

All you need is to give your date a unique identifier and link to that in you list. For instance below we give the h3 for each date an id relative to the date object. The browser knows how to handle internal links and will simply jump to the corresponding identifier. Notice how the id of the field you’re linking to gets appended to the end of the url when you click on the link.

<ul>
   <%- index = 0 %>
   <% @response.each_pair do |date, movie| %>
     <%- index += 1 %> 
     <li><%= link_to date_format(date), "##{index}", :class => 'scroll_to' %></li>
   <% end %>
</ul>
<%- index = 0 %>
<% @response.each_pair do |date, movie| %>
    <%- index += 1 %>
    <h3 class="resultTitle fontSize13" id="<%= index %>">Available on&nbsp;<%= date_format(date) %></h3>
    <% movie.each do |m| %>
      <div class="thumbnail clearfix">
        <img class="pull-left" src=<% if m.image_link %> <%= m.image_link %> <% else %> "/assets/noimage.jpg" <% end %>>
        <div class="caption pull-right">
          <%= link_to m.name, m.title_id, :class => 'resultTitle fontSize11' %>
          <p class="bio"><%= m.bio %></p>
          <p class="resultTitle">Cast</p>
          <p class="bio"><%= m.cast.join(", ") unless m.cast.empty? %></p>
          <%= link_to "Remind me", reminders_path(:title_id => m.title_id), :method => :post, :class => 'links button' %>
        </div>
      </div>
    <% end %>
<% end %>

For the added JQuery transition you can replace

<li><%= link_to date_format(date), "##{index}", :class => 'scroll_to' %></li>

with

<li><%= link_to_function date_format(date), "$('html, body').animate({scrollTop:$('##{index}').offset().top }, 'slow');", :class => 'scroll_to'%></li>

The above isn’t exactly a DRY approach, but the important thing to abstract out of that is that you’re linking to a unique ID elsewhere on the page and not the code itself.